Cuts to Warm Homes Plan would be 'terrible blunder' says East Sussex energy advice service

Local community benefit society Energise Sussex Coast has spoken out against reported plans to cut the Warm Homes Plan in order to pay for massively ramped-up military spending, saying that such a move would be 'a terrible blunder'.

The Warm Homes Plan is a government programme that is supposed to 'upgrade up to 5 million homes and lift up to a million families out of fuel poverty by 2030'.

Last week, the Guardian reported that ministers were 'preparing to slash the amount of money available' through the programme to subsidise heat pumps, to pay for increased military spending. The paper reported that this could involve cutting hundreds of millions of pounds from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) which helps households switch from gas boilers to cleaner heating methods such as heat pumps.

According to the International Energy Agency, heat pumps – which use electricity rather than gas to heat buildings - are the 'central technology' for slashing the climate impact of our heating systems. Moreover, with the right government policies heat pumps could also dramatically lower UK households' heating bills, according to research from the climate think tank E3G.

British households are already heading into winter with the wholesale price of gas at its highest level in four years, and the gas unit rate paid by consumers could hit 12p / kWh from 1 January 2027.

The move to cut the BUS has been strongly criticised by the innovation charity Nesta, who say that it would 'take the wind out of an industry at a critical stage of development, impacting installers across the country' and 'leave Britain’s whole climate and energy policy in disarray.' They note that, unlike is most other European countries, Britain’s heat pump market is still in the phase where it 'needs support to mature and become a mass-market technology' and that 74% of installations supported to the scheme would not have happened without the subsidy.

The UK government is aiming to more than double the UK's military budget in nominal terms over the next decade (from £70 billion in the 2025/26 financial year to £151 billion in 2035/36).

Founded in 2012, local community benefit cooperative Energise Sussex Coast (ESC) works to tackle the climate crisis and energy injustice through community-owned renewable power and energy-saving schemes. It runs a free Energy Advice service to help East Sussex residents to bring down the cost of their electricity, gas and water bills: 01424 390 062.

Its sister project, Energise South, has raised community investment to finance and install solar arrays on eleven local community buildings, including Baird Primary School and St Leonards Academy. These projects are estimated to have saved local schools over £56,000 in energy costs last year.

Energise Sussex Coast director Kate Meakin said: 'At last month's Labour Conference the Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero stated that "Britain has left itself exposed. Exposed to global fossil fuel markets we cannot control". She's right. In the midst of the current gas crisis - as well as the ever-deepening climate crisis – for the government to cut funding for a plan that would reduce Britain's dependence on imported gas would be a terrible blunder. It would be the wrong decision for our homes, for a liveable world and for our national security.'